The Shasta County Sheriff’s office has struggled to keep workers at the jail, citing low pay and low morale.
At a county supervisor meeting Tuesday, Support Services Director Monica Fugitt said they’ve been working with the sheriff’s office to expand recruitment efforts.
“In whole it’s been a very collaborative effort between our office and the sheriff’s office to try to make these changes, to try to look at improvements," she said.
County Supervisors approved a pay increase for one of the lowest paid positions in the jail, called Public Safety Service Officers. These workers don’t have direct responsibility over people in the jail, and help with things like processing, security and scheduling.
These positions currently start out at $17.48 an hour, but that’s being increased by an extra $2 dollars with this raise.
County Supervisor Tim Garman said they should also be looking at adding a hiring bonus as well.
“What we’re talking about with these PSSO’s is young adults getting into the workforce, where maybe that small hiring bonus would mean a little bit more than it would to somebody a little older who’s just changing careers," Garman said.
Correctional deputy positions do come with sign-on bonuses, but those jobs require more training. An entry-level correctional deputy can earn a $5,000 sign-on bonus, and someone with existing training could qualify for $15,000. Rates for those jobs vary from around $26 to $35 hourly.
Fugitt said the increase for Public Safety Service officers still leaves a gap between that position and correction deputies, to encourage promotion to better positions in the future.
She's hoping this will help fill out the vacant positions, only one out of the six are currently filled.
